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One of the most striking things about President Bush's Tuesday night State of the Union address, almost as striking as the total absence of any discussion of the ruined Gulf Coast, was his reference to an issue on which he had heretofore said very little.

Just after the part about his plans and promises for reducing oil consumption, and just before he got to that old standby about winning the war on terror, there was a fleeting mention of global warming. "The serious challenge of global climate change," was the way it came out, and in a speech full of very serious challenges, the fact that this one appeared at all was remarkable enough, and telling. It stands as a testament to the President's growing willingness to "cross that aisle," as he put it, and address some of the issues on which the Democrats have recently gained much ground. Indeed, as Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, was nominated for an Oscar that same day, the timing seemed appropriate, if appropriately late.

The semantics of Bush's statement also struck me as important, saying almost as much about the current administration's stand on climate change as its mention in the speech altogether. Global warming, both the concept and the term, are now fully ingrained in the public's consciousness, in no small part due to Gore's film. It is now the topic of water cooler debates and late-night talk show monologues, widely understood to be both the cause of the strange weather of recent years, and a growing source of concern for the future. Use of the phrase "global climate change," as opposed to the more colloquial alternative seemed formal, scientific, and absolutely not-of-the-people. For this truck-driving, joke-telling, brush-clearing leader of the free world, it seemed a strange choice of words. A long way from the days of "Fool me once, shame on you," to be sure.

To me the choice indicates several things. It reflects a soberer, more subdued George W. Bush, as noted by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in Wednesday's program. He's stepping into uncharted territory and it shows, using new language which does not fit with his Stay-The-Course persona of the last six years. It also suggests that while his administration is finally acknowledging that global warming is indeed a "serious challenge," they still intend to deal with it on their own terms, not on Gore's. This is a sad thing, if true, which may have dire consequences both for America, and for the planet.

Certainly, with his presidency in its twilight years, and his popularity at an all-time low, our leader is beginning to make larger compromises than ever before. Granted, while such a microscopic reading of a single phrase in a speech containing many important phrases might serve to block the larger picture, it is an ideal example of Hoyer's observation of an overarching sense of "too late and too little." Americans have begun to realize the truth about climate change as we did about the war in Iraq, and it is now the administration's turn to pick up the slack. We've been fooled once, and if recent polls are any indication, we seem to have learned our lesson. But if the State of the Union address is any indication, our president may yet allow himself to be fooled again.